


and then there were none

by fall_into_life



Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Death, Gen, What if?, naruto-meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 16:12:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fall_into_life/pseuds/fall_into_life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a prompt on the naruto-meme livejournal:</p><p>"What if all the members of Team Gai die in this war?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	and then there were none

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grassyhyuuga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grassyhyuuga/gifts).



They were never meant for greatness.

Neji, the genius who shouldn't have existed, Lee, whose work ethic couldn't put him on par with his peers, and Tenten, who just couldn't.

They lost Neji first. It had a sort of... not truth to it, but rightness. He was the only one of them who stood a chance of breaking out of that mold, of being someone, and he was the first to fall.

Then, Lee. That was the predictable one. Lee never understood limits, never understood that 'jounin' wasn't a challenge, it was a hard-earned title, and he should run rather than face five of them.

Tenten went last. She should have outlived them all, truth be told. She wasn't skilled enough to be sent to the front lines, wasn't reckless enough to seek them out herself. But she, too, died when Uzumaki Naruto dueled Uchiha Sasuke to the death.

(And if the terrain died with her, with her and all eleven of the other chuunin in the line of fire of Naruto's rasengans and Sasuke's chidoris, well, that was only right. Tenten was the life of Team Gai, and that nothing would ever grow where she died, well. That was right too.)

No one mourned them, not as individuals. Hinata and Gai, the only ones who might have said "oh, god, they're dead" instead of "oh, god, so many are dead", were burned right next to Team Gai, their names clustered close together on the memorial stone.

In the end, they weren't destined for greatness. If not for the war, maybe they would have been more than just names on the stone, than just numbers on a casualty report.

(But only maybe, and to some, that was the greater tragedy.)


End file.
